In recent years, multifunction peripherals and printers using computers in which a general purpose operation system is installed have became popular and capable of adapting to a network. The above multifunction peripherals and printers have a risk to be infected by computer viruses and a risk to spread infection of the computer virus over other apparatuses, therefore virus countermeasures are taken.
For example, there is a technology that the multifunction peripheral conducts virus inspection periodically with respect to programs and data in the multifunction peripheral and conducts an action to recover, quarantine or delete if the program and the data infected by the virus are detected (Patent Document 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-229611). Also, there is another technology that a printer conducts a virus inspection with respect to print data received from a terminal of a client and forces to stop operation and interrupts power supply, or restricts or interrupts network connection. Further the printer conducts a virus elimination process so as to prevent infection from spreading (secondary infection) (Patent Document 2: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-256104).
Patent Document 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-229611
Patent Document 2: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-256104
As the above Patent Document 1, in case the virus check is periodically conducted, or the program and the data infected by the virus is recovered when the virus is detected, the job may be suspended or delayed which may cause reduction of the productivity. In the technology of the Patent Document 2, when the virus is detected through the virus inspection with respect to the received print data, all operations are forced to be stopped and the productivity is reduced as well.
To detect infection of the virus, the virus inspection (virus check) has to be conducted with respect to the programs in the control modules in the apparatus. In a state where the virus inspection has not been conducted, whether or not the control module is infected is unclear and it is risky to operate the control module for executing the job. Provided that the control module is infected by the virus, there are risks of incorrect operation by the computer virus and spreading infection when the control module is operated. Whereby, it is preferred that the job is executed when “no infection” is confirmed as a result of the virus inspection.
However, since the multifunction peripheral having a plurality of functions such as scanning, printing, facsimile and e-mail transmission is provided with a plurality of control modules corresponding to the plurality of the functions, the virus inspection with respect to all the control modules takes time. Namely, if a periodical virus inspection or a virus inspection prior to job execution is conducted, start of job execution is delayed which causes a reduction of the productivity.